SPORT SHED

SPRING 2020 ATHLETIC CENTER |

The Sports Shed redefines the relationship between spectator and spectating by focusing on a single element that connects circulation, structure, and threshold. Instituting a scissor form allows access to different levels at each landing through the bifurcation of the staircase. Through this system, the circulation core creates two discrete enclosures: a smaller playing court on the south end of the site and a larger court area on the north end. The wide range of figures playing on the court and walking in the circulation core are projected onto the translucent facade. This allows not only the courts to be the spectacle, but the spectators within the circulation core also become part of a larger spectacle, from other spectators within the shed and the public outside the shed.

The sport shed, iconographic, is idiosyncratic to Boston’s historic North End and brings a new formal language into the historic neighborhood. The circulation, structure, and form echos a Shed Typology, each element dependent upon the other, making the structure the form and form the structure.

Section

Section Perspective

The main structure is a scissor/switchback construction that connects the courts with the spaces below. The truss system allows the court to span 120 ft with studio spaces, locker rooms, kiosks, administrative, and MEP below. The structure and floor plates are made of concrete, and the skin of translucent glass panels and metal.